Briefs: ANZ demand fair bargain, UnionPay expands in Australia, Westpac opens in Shanghai, and more

Bernard Kellerman
  •  Striking workers at ANZ New Zealand will march up Auckland City's Queen Street at midday today (NZ local time) and demand that the bank "bargain fairly," the workers' FIRST Union said in a brief statement. The union added that ANZ's workers could accept reduced security of hours without "meaningful compensation." When the marching workers reach the "flagship" ANZ Queen Street branch, "they will be greeted by a giant inflatable pig, symbolising ANZ's greed," the union said.

  • The Financial System Inquiry final report could start a race to create Australian companies designed to make banks irrelevant, writes the Chanticleer columnisrt in the AFR, who predicts that Murray will suggest a regulatory framework that makes it easier for the delivery of electronic financial services. This will  challenge the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, lumbered with paper-based and heavily bureaucratic ways of regulation.

  • UnionPay cards are expected to be used by more than 60 per cent of all Australian merchants by 2015, the China-based firm said yesterday. An agreement announced with Westpac will expand the network of ATMs and point-of-sale devices that accept UnionPay cards, building on partnerships with National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Australia Post. UnionPay said its payment cards were now accepted in Australia by almost all tertiary education providers, 97 per cent of taxis, 70 per cent of ATMs and 50 per cent of merchants. Westpac will also foster acceptance of UnionPay cards in Samoa, Solomon Islands and Cook Islands for the first time.

  • Standard Chartered had its credit rating downgraded for the first time in 20 years, with ratings agency Standard & Poor's saying that the bank was going through a tough period. S&P cut its rating on the UK bank's long-term debt from AA- to A+ and short-term debt from A-1+ to A-1, saying that the bank faced increased problems in its corporate loans book, as well as the likelihood that it would receive no support from the British government should it get into trouble. The bank was put on a "negative" outlook.

  • Westpac opened its first sub-branch in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, after receiving approval from China's Banking Regulatory Commission. The bank is one of only two Australian banks, along with ANZ, that have so far been granted market makers' licences to directly trade AUD/CNY and NZD/CNY on the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

  • ANZ announced yesterday that it was not changing its standard variable home loan rate from the current 5.88 per cent per annum. In July, the bank cited "consistent customer feedback that they would like to understand the outcome of our interest rate review process earlier in the month in line with our competitors," along with what it saw as greater stability in offshore funding markets, and moved the timing of its monthly review from the second Friday of each month to "by the Friday following the Reserve Bank of Australia's board meeting." Two rate cuts are now being tipped for the first quarter of 2015.

  • Commonwealth Bank said it would provide nearly 250 customers in Canberra affected by the Mr Fluffy asbestos scare with a A$10,000 special assistance payment - costing the bank around $2.5 million.